Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science (1975, 1980)

Depicted is the cover of the second edition of Ritzer’s classic book on the paradigmatic state of sociology. You can read Ritzer's original article on which this book is based. In it, he applies Thomas Kuhn's idea of "paradigms" to sociology and shows that sociology is a multiple paradigm science. He also discusses the implications of that for the state for the field. This is the starting point for Ritzer’s work  on metatheory. The original article appeared in The American Sociologist, Vol. 10, No. 3, August 1975 (pp. 156-167).

 

Toward an Integrated Sociological Paradigm (1981) In this book Ritzer continues his paradigmatic analysis of sociology arguing that sociology is in need of an “integrated” paradigm to supplement the extant paradigms described in his previous book on this topic. The integrated paradigm that is offered deals with multiple levels of social reality and the interrelationships among and between the various levels. The status of sociology-- internal conflict that hinders the creative production of new ideas- is described and critiqued.
— Levels of Social Analysis and an Integrated Sociological Paradigm
— Potential Exemplars for an Integrated Sociological Paradigm

The McDonaldization of Society (1993)

In the original edition of this ground-breaking book, George Ritzer argues that society is undergoing a process of rationalization.  Reconceptualizing Max Weber's argument that the bureaucracy is the ideal type of such a process, Ritzer argues that   the fast food restaurant has come to replace the bureaucracy as the model for this process. He identifies the four primary components of this model to be efficiency, predictability, calculability and increased control through the replacement of human with non-human technology. Particular attention is paid to the irrationality of rationality (and therefore of McDonaldization).